Watermill Young Company - Lay Your Sleeping Head

They're all lovin' the Watermill Young Company

Watermill Young Company: Lay Your Sleeping Head, from Tuesday, November 17 to
Saturday, November 21

Family relationships can be complicated challenging
affairs and sometimes they are not always harmonious. In
Ciaran McConville's excellent and stunning new play, Lay
Your Sleeping Head for the Watermill's Young Company we
share the experiences and lives of three generations of the
same family who have lived and shared a farmhouse on the
Somerset Levels over the past 70 years.

Ciaran is an up-and-coming writer who is certainly a
playwright to follow. His play is brimful of meticulous
observation and charming insight into both rural English and
modern life as time moves between the generations.

Designer Julieann Worrall Hood's delightful set captured
perfectly the rural setting, with an Aga, large farmhouse
table and beautifully rural landscape picture suggesting the
changing seasons, finely lit by Stuart Harrison. Skilfully
directed by Ade Morris, this large, talented cast confidently portrayed their
characters as the play moved seamlessly between the various
generations, revealing a story of love, betrayal, loss and
hope.

It was a complex plot that worked on several levels, from
contemporary rural life to modern urban stresses and the
traditional farming community. The extended family gathered
together as they prepared to sell the house, sort out
long-term family squabbles and help to pay for Adam's (Jack
Ford-Lane) drug debts and his relationship with Simon
(Daniel Gladwell). His older sister, Judith - a sterling
performance by Charlotte Allen - discovers her
parents' diaries, revealing their loving relationship
(sensitively played by Daryl Hurst and Lucy Carmichael as Colin and June). We learned much about the family's
humble beginnings and their struggle to cope with bringing
up a family through the atrocities of the Second World War
and their links with the land and their farm in developing a
cheese business.

There were many secrets that were slowly revealed through
the generations, including unplanned pregnancies. There were
some fine ensemble performances from an excellent supportive
cast.

Sophie Cooke provided a superb live musical accompaniment
that perfectly complemented the story.

As Cairan McConville said in the programme: "When I was
asked what defined my generation all I could think of was
the McDonald's jingle I'm lovin' it'." I certainly loved
this show, as did the enthusiastic audience. The Watermill's
Young Company just grows in the quality of its productions.
Bravo.